Category: Seasonal

TimberNook Long Island is thrilled to announce that summer registration is NOW OPEN!

TimberNook Long Island is pleased to offer TimberNook programs this summer hosted at Brookhaven Country Day Camp in Yaphank. Our location is the perfect place for TimberNook experiences with plenty of wooded space for endless free play!

It can be a real struggle to help kids manage tricky sensory-related challenges.

Parents find it difficult to weed through all of the information and pull out what will work for their child.

Teachers may struggle with kids who fall out of their chairs, can’t focus, and feed off other students. They may feel compelled to help these students but lack resources, time, or tactics.

Therapists may search for fresh ideas that provide the right kind of sensory input and will be carried over at home and at school, all while fitting into the child’s occupational performance sweet spot.

Do one or more of the categories described above sound familiar?

Maybe you are trying sensory strategies, searching for information, and creating sensory diets that just aren’t working. You’re doing all of the right things, but struggle to meet the sensory needs of an individual child.

They are a FREE printable resource that encourages sensory diet strategies in the outdoors. In the printable packet, there are 90 outdoor sensory diet activities, 60 outdoor recess sensory diet activities, 30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards. They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.

Research tells us that outdoor play improves attention and provides an ideal environment for a calm and alert state, perfect for integration of sensory input. In fact, outdoor play provides input from all the senses, allows for movement in all planes, and provides a variety of strengthening components including eccentric, concentric, and isometric muscle contractions. The outdoors are a vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile, and overall sensory-enriched goldmine!

As for Timbernook – this is the perfect opportunity to provide your child with a summer filled with outdoor play and sensory processing activities. If two or more children from the same family are attending they will be eligible for a discount of $25 per child. Email Megan at megan.hansen@timbernook.com to apply for the discount.

TimberNook is not your typical nature program

TimberNook was designed to get children outdoors in a sensory-rich environment. At our programs, children explore their surroundings, take risks, play, build and dive deep into their imaginations. We strive to be the “living example” of what real, authentic play should look like.

If you are searching to give your child ample time to play this summer click on LINK to register and share the news with friends and family!

ABOUT THE OWNER:

Megan has been a pediatric occupational therapist for 17 years. She recently completed her doctorate in occupational therapy with a focus on outdoor free play. When Megan is not working she enjoys biking, hiking, and spending time with her husband, daughter, and son.

FREEBIE: 5 PAGE HOLIDAY THEMED VISUAL PERCEPTUAL ACTIVITY PACKET

I do. Especially at school with the kids. There are so many fun things going on: concerts, holiday boutique, holiday parties, Secret Santas, and all kinds of jolliness.

Sometimes it can be hard to keep those kids engaged, though. They are overstimulated from all the music, busy decorations, sweet treatments and holiday excitement.

At times like this, I love to have some fun activities or worksheets to do with the kids on my OT caseload. This year, I’m focusing on visual perceptual skills.

I’ve created a Holiday Themed Visual-Perceptual Activities packet that I can use with all of my kids – from my Kindergarteners to my Middle Schoolers. Some of the activities are very simple, while others are pretty tough.

All of the pages are black and white – because coloring is great fine motor work! To work on shoulder stability, have the kids do these worksheets on a vertical surface or while laying on their tummy!

My Free Holiday Themed Visual Perceptual Activities packet works on the following skills:

Visual Discrimination: This is the ability to notice and compare the features of an item to match or distinguish it from another item; distinguishing a P from an R, matching shapes to complete a puzzle, etc.

Visual Figure Ground: This is the ability to find something in a busy background; finding the red crayon in a messy supply box, or finding the milk in a packed fridge, as well as finding a bit of specific text on a busy printed page.

The holidays are here! The holidays are here! Think of all the parties, the presents, the …stress!

Teachers are going nuts trying to get report cards done and review for tests in the middle of half days, plays, and holiday concerts. Parents are going crazy arranging childcare for the week off, planning holiday dinners, decorating the house, and finding the perfect gift for their family members.

Who has time to think of a teacher gift?

First, it is absolutely not necessary to give a gift to any teacher or professional that works with your child. They are simply doing their job and they get paid to do so. However, when your child has a special connection with a staff member, or you know that someone has gone out of their way to help your child, some parents like to give a little something to say thank you.

10 Pet Peeves of a school-based Occupational Therapist

In the spirit of teaching the general public about OT, I’ve decided to share some of my “O.T. pet peeves”. The teachers that I work with know me pretty well. As a true Sagittarius, I am a very easy going person, but some things drive me nuts! (Yes I believe in that stuff)

My pet peeves are all with good reason, I swear! Over the years, I’ve managed to rub my “O.T. ways” off on many of them. Here are my pet peeves with explanations:

CUT THE CLUTTER

1) Over decorated classrooms – A classroom with too much stuff going on can be really distracting for kids with attention issues. Too much clutter, every wall covered, things hanging from the ceiling, desks covered with pictures and visual cues, etc. Children who are easily overstimulated get distracted by all of these things.

Teachers wonder why so many kids have such poor attention – maybe all the clutter is what is distracting them? Also, when children are trying to copy from the board, they need to change the position of their head (as well as their visual gaze) from looking at a vertical surface (board) to a horizontal surface (notebook). Think of all of the visual distractions in the path from the board to the notebook. No wonder they have difficulty copying!

Check out my video with tips for “copying from the board” here.

This post contains affiliate links.

2) Gluesticks – The teachers that I work with know that I NEVER want glue sticks if we are working on an art and craft project. I prefer regular good old Elmers glue! Why? I know they can be messy at first, but that’s because children need to learn how hard to squeeze. They need to be able to recognize that the glue cap isn’t open. They need to use their little hand muscles to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Real glue, please! Also – need a quick glue cap #OThack for little hands? Use a Wikki Stix (aka Bendaroo) on the cap so kids know where to pinch. It also helps them to hold, so their little fingers don’t slide when they twist.

SENSORY PROCESSING

3) Too many cushion seats – This one is in a special case. Generally, if a teacher asks me for a cushion seat, I’m psyched. I love that they are looking for a strategy to increase a child’s ability to focus. BUT – when a teacher approaches me and says “I need five seat cushions”, my immediate reply (in my head, of course) is “Um, NO, you need to change your classroom routine.” If that many children are having difficulty sitting still or focusing, the classroom routine should be altered to include lots of brain breaks, heavy work, and changes in position.

A cushion seat should be the exception, not the rule. Kids need to move!

Holiday Toy Shopping is around the corner!

The holidays can be very overwhelming. Shopping for kids who seem to already have everything can be very overwhelming too! As an OT, I have some favorite tried and true toys and games that address many educational and developmental issues. I’ve decided to make a short list for all the families out there who want to buy toys that are fun but meaningful. Toys that address motor skills, visual perceptual skills, and reading and math are always a great buy, because you are supplying some fun while also working on foundational skills that will also support their classroom leaning.

Pin These for Later!

As an OT, I love to get into the “Halloween Spirit” of things at school with my students. Sensory recipes are always a great way to work on multiple skills at once, including Mixing, Measuring, Pouring, Stirring, and Kneading.

Cooking is a great way to work on fine motor skills, bilateral coordination (using two hands), dexterity, and functional life skills.

Sensory recipes are a non-edible method of working on all the above skills, which is perfect for school.

Food Allergies at Halloween

It’s important to make sure that none of your students have food allergies or aversions when you bring a Sensory recipe into a classroom. Some of my kids have gluten-free diets or nut allergies, so when in doubt, I send a letter home with the ingredients a week before the activity to get permission from the parent. Better to be on the safe side.

Halloween parties often include lots of candy and junk food. Instead of the typical sugar overload, why not set up a bunch of fun Sensory activities to get your kid’s friends in the Halloween Spirit?

Halloween Sensory Recipes

Here are my five favorite Sensory recipes – with a Halloween spin!

1) Halloween Dirt Doh

I’ve written about this recipe before, it’s a simple recipe with used coffee grinds. Make a large batch and it’s perfect for a Spooky Coffin!

Here’s the recipe:

2 cups used coffee grinds (wet or dry)

2 cups of water (add it little by little until you get the consistency you want)

2 cups of flour (add more if you need to make the doh a little more doughy)

I asked my local bagel store to save me all their used coffee grinds for a few days before our Halloween party. When I went to pick it up, they had three bags full. Perfect! I filled an “under the bed storage” tupperware container with my ingredients.

I let my students mix it up with spoons and their hands. Then we hid some “spooky” items in the dirt – eyeballs, fingers, and bones. Add a fake tombstone and voila!

Now you have an awesome spooky sensory activity that addresses tactile defensiveness, hand strength, and bilateral coordination. Also – used coffee grinds have a distinct odor. Kids who are picky eaters usually have a strong sense of smell, which can trigger a gag reflex. Engaging in “smelly” activities is a good way to work on desensitizing the sense of smell. Finding things that are hidden in a busy background is a visual perceptual skill called visual figure-ground.

Add a blindfold that takes away the visual component, and now you are working on stereognosis. Stereognosis is the ability to recognize an object by using tactile information. This means a person uses their tactile sense without using their vision or sense of vision or hearing to figure out what they are touching. Just like digging in your purse for your phone, while looking at something else.

Sensory Processing 101 is a vital resource for parents, therapists, and teachers who work with children with Sensory Processing Difficulties.

Bet you do that a lot! I know I do…

2) Halloween Slime

A simple slime recipe can be altered a million different ways. Add a bit of food coloring or washable paint and you can color it to fit any holiday or theme. I used my go-to slime recipe, added a bit of orange food coloring, and gave my kiddies some cheap Halloween manipulatives to play with.

Here’s the recipe:

2 cups of Elmer’s glue

2 cups of water

2 cups of liquid starch (found in the laundry aisle)

Mix the glue and the water together to thin out the glue. Then, slowly add the liquid starch. Mix together with a spoon, then knead with hands. Add coloring to your liking. Once the starch is all blended (I let the kids take turns kneading and squeezing the whole batch), split the batch into individual portions for each child. Then the fun begins! The texture of the slime can vary, which can alter your activity. I had one class that ended up with very “stringy” slime, which reminded us of spider webs! Another class had very firm slime, which was perfect to make Jack o’ lanterns. Add some cookie cutters, manipulatives, etc. and let the kids get creative! You can even leave it white and let the kids create their own mummies or ghost faces!

3) Halloween Play-doh

– you can go simple and just buy playdoh, or you can whip some up the old fashioned way.

You can use cookie cutters to make witches, pumpkins, spiders, you name it! I like to use a chip tray to give my kids cut up pipe cleaners, wobbly eyes, and tiny spiders. The kids can make a Halloween creation of their own design.

4) Pumpkin Pie Playdoh

I am a pumpkin lover. I love the taste, but I also really love the smell! Like I said, it’s good to incorporate olfactory (smelly) stuff into your activities. It can help picky eaters to broaden their boundaries and it is a great way to incorporate multi-sensory learning into your lessons.

You can use a simple play-doh recipe and add some Pumpkin Pie Spice and some orange food coloring and you have the perfect Pumpkin Pie Playdoh!

Here’s what you need to make the doh:

2 cups of flour (you can use gluten-free if you need to)

1/2 cup of salt

1 cup of water

a dash of pumpkin pie spice (a make your own recipe listed below if you can’t find it)

a couple of drops of orange food coloring or washable paint

Mix the flour and the salt together. Add the water bit by bit and keep mixing and kneading until you get a firm, doughy texture. Add the pumpkin pie spice and the orange paint. I like to do this at the end because the kids can see where the paint isn’t mixed. This gives them a visual cue to keep kneading, twisting and squeezing until the colors are blended nicely.

To make pumpkin pie spice:

1/4 cup of ground cinnamon

4 tsp. ground nutmeg

4 tsp. ground ginger

1 tbs. ground allspice

This results in quite a bit of pumpkin pie spice – you can half it if you want, but I love to keep it around and use it to flavor my coffee. Add a teaspoon to your regular coffee grinds and you’ve got some fabulous pumpkin flavored coffee. Who needs Starbucks!? Budget Divas make their own!

The Sensory Processing 101 Bundle sale ends Oct 31, 2017!

5) Ghost Guts

My kids got a giggle out of this one! I took a simple sensory recipe and gave it a Halloween name. It went great!

Here’s what you need:

2 parts corn starch

2 parts shaving cream

You can give each kid a bowl or make it in one big batch. I made it in a big Tupperware bowl and let my kids do the mixing. I also hid some little white bones and spiders in there for my kids to pull out. They loved it.

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Communication: the key to success!

Since it’s the beginning of the school year, I’ve decided to share my best advice for improving communication with your child’s therapist. Parents sometimes feel helpless because they don’t know what their child is doing in OT, PT, or Speech. You can’t be with your child all day long, so you don’t know if they had therapy that day, if it was cancelled, if he/she did a great job, etc. If your child is non-verbal it’s even more of a mystery.

Communicate from the beginning!

My best advice for starting the year off right is to communicate with the therapist. I like for parents to send in a notebook so I can write a short blurb about what we worked on. I like to give handouts for suggestions at home and let them know how their child is progressing.

However, some therapists don’t like notebooks. For example, my sister-in-law is a speech therapist. She sees children in groups of five. That means that at the “end” of her session, she would need to write in 5 different books. With 7 therapy periods a day, that would be 35 notebooks a day. Now, what is more important? Writing in the books or working with the kids? You can guess the answer.

For me, I see children individually or in a group of two. So it only takes a few minutes to jot down what we worked on and how the child did. I have some parents who write me back or put a checkmark every time I write. Then I have a few others who don’t do anything. Now I don’t know if they read my note or even saw it. Did the book even go home? After a few of these, I have to be honest: I am less motivated to write in that book. Because 1) why bother if you are not reading it and 2) it takes time away from your child.

Communication Notebooks don’t always work

Sometimes parents send in a book and then they get annoyed when the therapist doesn’t write in it. Here is my advice for that:

1) Write to them first. Tell them you want to communicate and would love feedback about how your child is doing. You would love suggestions for home, etc.

2) If it’s been a few weeks and you haven’t heard from your therapist, write a note to the teacher. Maybe the book is lost or maybe your child sticks it in his desk instead of his backpack.

Sometimes the schedule (the therapist’s or the child’s) interferes with writing in the book, too. In Long Island, most districts do not have their own OT’s and PT’s. So the therapists are from contract agencies, working in multiple buildings and even multiple districts in one day. This means that sometimes they eat lunch in their car in between schools. Life is chaotic.

Anyway, my point is that a day in a therapist’s life is often rushed and scheduled down to the very minute. So is your child’s. They have to fit your child’s OT or PT session around lunch, literacy block, other therapies, resource room and specials. This means they may pick up your child straight from music and then bring them right down to lunch. Maybe they go straight off the bus to the OT room and then the class picks them up on the way to art. The child isn’t in their classroom and therefore they couldn’t grab their notebook.

Communication: Don’t believe what you hear!

Then there is also this scenario:

Mom: “What did you do in OT today?”

Johnny: “We colored”.

The OT: “Johnny colored in a color-by number sheet to work on visual perceptual skills and matching while laying on his belly to increase upper extremity strength and stability. He is working to increase his endurance for writing.”

Mom: “What did you do in OT today?”
Johnny: “We played games!”

The OT: “We’ve been working on visual perceptual skills and fine motor skills. Johnny has trouble tracking from left to right when copying from the board. We played “Battleship” because it works on all of those skills at once. We also played it laying our bellies to improve Johnny’s shoulder stability.”

See the difference? Kids work hard to sit it school all day, so OT and PT are a great chance for them to move and “have fun”. So most therapists try to work on their therapy goals while incorporating movement and fun for the child. To the outsider it looks like all fun and games. But there is some hard work going on.

Your therapist isn’t going to tell your child all the things they are really working on. So your child won’t tell you.

Communication is KEY to progress and carryover. Your child’s therapist wants them to succeed and so do you. If the notebook doesn’t work, ask if you can email. Some districts don’t want teachers to email, so if that’s the case ask for monthly updates or a phone call once in a while. Keep in mind that your child’s therapist may have between 20-60 other kids on their caseload.

Do you have any tips for communicating with your therapists? Please share!